Back to AoS though.
I know a bunch of people probably dropped this show back in the 1st season, and considering how many good shows were out then and out now, I don't blame them. Not many were so invested in the MCU that they stuck it out till the Winter Soldier twist (Hydra was there the entire time) that changed the whole show for the better.
Which means they also didn't stick around for the excellent 2nd season, which picked up the momentum from the end of the 1st season, and just ran with it and never looked back. It was like AoS was a whole new show at this point, a much better show at this point, but it was still the 1st season that set up some elements of character development and storyline that made S2 that much better. This was the season where they discovered Inhumans, where someone found out who they really were, what they could really do, and that they weren't alone. It ends with the cliff hanger of Simmons getting sucked into the black rock.
Now S3 was a bit of a bumpy ride with it's ups and downs, but overall it was very enjoyable. This was the Alien planet season, and the ep where Simmons is stuck on an alien planet was one of the best episodes of the show. One of the biggest builds up in this season is that Ward dies twice and hopefully Hydra was taken out in the process.
*Minor Spoilers below - this is a spoiler thread, but I wanted to talk about this show without diving into all details, just enough detail to renew interest in watching the show again.*
But on to the star of this show. The ongoing and Amazing Season 4 so far, as it's on'u 2/3 done, with a six week break before coming back to once again flip this show on it's head again.
Season 4 changes things up a bit in it's approach. For one it moved to 10pm on Tuesday nights. It decided to take it's borderline mature rating, and just go for it instead of trying to hit every demo like in S1, and the biggest and best change was that they decided to do 3 serialized story arcs with a thread or 2 connecting it all, instead of just 1 long "aimless" arc in S1 or 2 half seasons like in s2 & s3.
It starts off with the great Ghost Rider arc, which has a great storyline that involves the Darkhold and the new Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes who drives a car, not a bike (although we do we do see Johnny Blaze on the Motorcycle too) One of the best things about this arc, besides Ghost Rider himself, was that it set up the next arc so well with use of the Darkhold and the creation of an LMD... using the Darkhold. This opening arc of S4 was so good, you figured, it's probably never going to be this good again.... seeing as GR had to make an exit from the show. Well, we were wrong.
Arc #2: LMD is actually EVEN BETTER.
LMD standing for Life Model Decoy, and the first prototype being A.I.D.A, and she is more terrifying than Ultron, and this season so far was actually better than the movies. Bold statement, I know, but one I believe to be true at this moment in time, as there are dozens and dozens of hours of build up and development in this show vs the movies. The sense of mystery and distrust built up in this season has been incredible. Between not knowing who is who, are you yourself, are you what and who you say you are, and is this reality, AoS really stepped up their storytelling and last episode that just aired before the last break of the season really has the potential to flip this show on it's head once again.
We find out that AIDA is crazy. Her objective is clear, but the process in which she interprets her programming to be more human has allowed her to rationale her thoughts. This led to preserving Radcliffe's life as programming, but not in the way he expected... or wanted.
Her reading the Darkhold has giving her access to understanding of things way beyond what we thought possible, and this lead to her creating not only a portal to the Limbo Dimension to rescue Coulson and Fitz, but also to creating artificial brains that allowed the for real LMD's and the Framework, which is a Virtual Reality that that simulates the entire world down to the most minute details. Artificial brains allowed Radclife and AIDA to map the entire human brain into an LMD so that the LMD may not even realize it was an LMD, but the framework allowed them to store the host body in stasis while they occupy the mind in a completely realistic virtual environment that was indistinguishable from reality... except they controlled what the reality was in here.
The dark side of this virtual reality is that AIDA was told to map brains and remove a guilt, and make that the host new reality, so this is where things can get flipped on their heads.
*Actual Spoilers Ahead*
Coulson, May, Mack, Fitz, and the Director are all trapped in the framework and don't know it.
Their LMD bodies have all been disposed of at this point.
Daisy and Simmons decide to jump into the frame work to rescue them.
-Coulson is no longer an Agent, but now a teacher, as he sometimes wished he never got in that life.
-Mack is at home with his daughter Hope that he never lost due to whatever that tragic accident was.
-Fitz is ballin' with a babe of some sort on his arm as he gets out of a limo in his expensive suit Looks like maybe he invented some tech that made him insanely rich. I'm assuming Aida is his girl. and I assume that because....
-Simmons has a grave stone with a death date of November 8th, 2XXX which, could mean she wakes up in the Virtual world in a pine box.... or not... who knows.
-May is an Agent of Hydra, in the rebranded Triskellion with a giant Hydra logo on the side.
-Skye wakes naked in the bath, getting notified that she and her BF are being called in. she assumes it's Lincoln, but nope, it's even better. Her boyfriend in this virtual world is Ward. Yes he is back.
and back in the real world, Aida is chopping up a body to create a remote controlled LMD using a real human brain. One that feels real feelings in it's fake body. In other words, she put a dudes head in a box (it's still alive), and connected him remotely to an artificial body. The power of the Darkhold at work here people.
and it's been suggested by Marvel that the name of the 3rd arc is Agents of Hydra, but I'm hoping its something better than that.
The most impactful thing about this last episode is it calls back to everything you know about these characters in an attempt to realize not only what their regret was, but why it puts them where they are in The Framework.
So now, lets talk about where this next arc will take us and where it might leave us.
and who comes out of this, assuming they come out of this, with the worst case of PTSD?
Topic: SPOILER ALERT: MCU Thread (Quantum-Ant-Man-ia) (Read 239038 times)
